Green Dot

[Placid Dingo]

{Name of one character reused from short story, but different character.}

Chapter one; What people say.

What people say bout Sabha is that she was the best at licki of anyone in the school or in the town even. I'm sure that's not true, but it stands to record that she was sure more soon ready for it than a lot of the other sheils. What they say about me is mostly false. The big-crime is all false for starts, and the deviling too. They say I'm a kittylick, which is some-true, though not how they mean it to be. And I also got heard that they say I'd licki with Mr Mendelhorn, but that's big-false.

What they'd say bout Mr Mendelhorn was mostly false before the event, on account that he was thought quite typical. And further what was thought of him after the event was just as false, due to exaggeration in the otherway.

What they say about these days is that we're on the edge of hell and I'm not much sure how to address that one in particular.

Chapter two: Mum, Dad and Kiki.

Mum was getting licki with another block, or at least dad thought as much so, and they got into not-love and mum went off and lived with that other block. Dad got into the blue then and would hit a lot of sakee.
We had a Kitti; every family did then. Ours we called Kiki. She was young (in twenties, but Kittis often show younger than is) and deeply beautiful with dark brown eyes that seemed to look into forever. She would be in uniform- a baggy unflattering denim sackdress, with a chestpeice to hide her curves, but it did little to disguise her femininity. She would shave her head every morning at four am and around thirteen years old I would sneak out to watch. She would leave to begin duties and I would sneak in to the bathroom and infect myself with the pungent aroma of shaving cream, and touch the tiny black grains of hair lining the plughole. it was bad-wrong to have sex feelings about a Kitti; that was real dark perverted; but being there, young and infested with naughty desire, it seemed like there would be nothing more wonderful in the world.

Chapter three: Conversation with Kiki.

"Ohai Ashke Sammma"
"Good morning Kiki"
"Your Toutou is still not home."
"Dad needs his space, Kiki."
"He is away for long time ne? He has to come home soon."
"He always comes home."
"Ashke samma, your Touto doesn't come home soon there can be trouble ne? Sometimes they kill a Kitti if there is no parents ne, if they think she has kill them. If someone..."
"Can I get some goddamn breakfast Kiki?"
"Haihai, it's cooking. Very soon now." A pause. "I just worry..."
"Kiki, worry about the house and the food. Don't worry about dad. Now you get that frown off your forehead or I'll iron it off, hear?"
"Haihai"

Chapter four. Church.

Sabha and Mr Mendelhorn would both attend the same church. I didn't know it at the time so much as I was none acquainted with the either of them. But they were always there.
The church was a Stautua, not a Meetup. In Owlia that's the two types of church. A Stautua is built on a statue ground, where the statues are. The statues are big white statues of people, about twice as big as actual folk. They're what's been around since before even mankind got made proper, built by the Owlia, who are essentially our creators. The statues have big black eyes. When the Owlia return from their other worlds, the eyes will begin to bleed, and the six great fears of humanity will envelop the earth, and then the Owlia will return to us and reveal the secrets at the core of the universe.
Only a Statua, a church built near these statues (across the land, there are many thousand) is a real church, and any other is a Meetup. Both get called church though.

I sat alone at the side or the chair. It was important to show up (every Owlian ought attend, and everyone (cept Puppis and Kittis) is an Owlian) and despite the shame of showing up with no dad, I was still best to show up.

Sabha came that day too and sat beside me. Sabha was known of somewhat; she didn't have a home so much, nor rents nor even a Kitti or Puppi (male Kitti) to care for her. She didn't school or any such, but she didn't die neither, which made her suspicious in a few ways.

She smelt a bit badly, just a dull musty dirtsmell draped over her clothes. Her hair was scrappy too, red middle length. She was tanned a bit, but not too dark and even in her unkempt state, her curves and her long legs wrapped in damaged denim possessed a simple allure.

"Ohai," she said, and I winced slightly at her use of Kittitalk.
"Hey"
She extended a hand. There was a ring on her finger with a small blue stone in it. "I'm Sabha."
"Ashke"
"Hajime, Ashke," she said, then, realising my discomfort, "by the seas and by the shore..."
"...viva Owlia ever more," I completed, and we fell into a more comfortable silence.
We remained there in quite for some time. I felt torn between remaining near her or moving elsewhere. She was unhomed, rentless, and no Kitti to speak of. She used Kittitalk too, which was well uncouth. To come to church, even alone, maintained my place in the community. To appear publically near such a character could jeopardise that.

However I was plenty glad for the company. And I was definitely glad to have sheil company. But mostly it was nice to be near to someone who obviously had no concept of what was right and appropriate, and by that virtue seemed unaware of my failings in this degree.

The church session ended. As people stood to leave Sabha placed a hand on my leg.

"See you," she said. She stood, her hand sliding up my leg, a nail scraping gently up the inner of my thigh. Her eyes looked off into the distance as though she were unaware of the effect she had on me. She stood and left.

I got up and began to leave. As I did, I passed Mr Mendelhorn speaking to another man.

"That girl is homeless," said the man, "Lord knows how she sustains herself. Drugs I say. All drugs these days."

"Drugs are a base scourge on our society, and may Owlia strike her down before us all if she dare dabble in those darkest arts," said Mr Mendelhorn, brow furrowed. He looked like a puffed up parody of the man he spoke to, and naturally I was yet unable to comprehend the significance of this.